Siemens ups wireless speed by factor of 20

Researchers at Siemens' labs in Munich, Germany have managed to increase wireless speeds past the gigabit level. In so doing they now claim to have created the fastest ever wireless network connection. A demonstration of the system was done this week at the labs, with speeds of 1Gbps reached and maintained–that is 20 times faster than the current 802.11g standard.

A wireless connection of that speed was achieved by combining Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) and Multi-In, Multi-Out (MIMO) antenna technology. OFDM is already being used for ADSL, digital radio, and TV transmission, and has been used in earlier demonstrations by Siemens. MIMO is a new addition, however, and is what helped the increase in speed over just using the OFDM technique. MIMO helps by allowing more than one signal to be transmitted via channels, in this case using three transmitting and four receiving channels.

On top of being the fastest known wireless transmission, the Siemens tech is also very efficient, using a 5GHz band and 100MHz bandwidth. In fact, it is around 7 times more efficient than 802.11g. Siemens also managed to cut down the amount of computation required for MIMO to work. In the past this has been the stumbling block for the technology being used in a commercial product.

MATTHEW'S OPINION
That's an incredible speed increase even over Siemens' previous test, which saw a “mere” 360Mbps achieved. I am sure it won't take long for the technique to be refined and used in commercial wireless networks, eventually filtering down to consumer products, too.

The question is, do we really need such a fast wireless network in the home? The answer at the moment is obviously no, unless you are doing some major data shifting between PCs. The maximum you need for Internet access still means you can easily survive with a 100Mbps wired network or a 54Mbps wireless one.

Siemens believes our bandwidth needs will increase by a factor of 10 by 2015, meaning we will have cable speeds of around 40Mbps in the home. It's hard to believe this will happen … until you think about how much the speed has increased over the past few years. Broadband–in the U.K., anyway–is still relatively new, with first offerings at 512K/s. Less than 5 years later it is common to see 4Mbps connections available, and an 8Mbps package has recently started being offered in certain areas.

question:(1:57pm EST Fri Dec 10 2004)ok I did not read the links… but maybe someone did and can tell me one of the most important question regarding this article, and I think GEEK should have told us:

over what distance did they achieve the speed ??? was is 300 feet or 2 miles? isnt that info as important as the speed value? why is that not in the GEEK writeup, I am disappointed – by hello chief editor!!

dang gina(2:11pm EST Fri Dec 10 2004)That is some fast speeds.. and I for one don't care how far away the computeres were.. I mean I used to beam files from my laptop with my infrared port, you had to be pretty close for that.. Hard drive speeds are going to have to increase to keep up with the piplines. – by Trogdor

the range is very important(2:15pm EST Fri Dec 10 2004)if it was only inches (which I dont think) then the speed is pretty much useless, some miles would be great – by 2c

Not computers Audio Video(2:31pm EST Fri Dec 10 2004)This how you will send HDTV around your home isntead of with cables. – by TV GUY

American broadband is not so broad…(2:41pm EST Fri Dec 10 2004)High speed is 4Mbps at best for home cable HIGH speed internet. We are supposed to be the world tech leader and we only get 4Mbps when places like Korea get over 50Mbps VDSL for home… for merely $30 / month…– by Need more bandwidth.

sweden 100mb(3:28pm EST Fri Dec 10 2004)ja – by svenska

Need more bandwidth(5:11pm EST Fri Dec 10 2004)Yeah, right.

And what is the average income over there? And what pecentage of homes have broadband?

We are the tech leader…regardless of the bandwidth. – by Bandleader

Korea(5:29pm EST Fri Dec 10 2004)We are the 4th country Behind North Korea that runs internet at 20Mbps for $39.99 a month, Japan 29 Mbps, Some places in england 12 Mbps. We are the only country that will not allow faster speeds because of Stupid Burocracy.People on North Korea watch HDTV on their Computers also they have more services available like streaming movies at High definition, we can barely can watch Yahoo video clips… – by Guinness

bandwith(6:47pm EST Fri Dec 10 2004)DO NOT COMPLAIN

Mexico = 2Mbps for US$100/month, avg income is ridiculous.

By the way, avg income in sweden is greater than in the US.

Salu2! – by mexican

Fast? …(11:11pm EST Fri Dec 10 2004)Try to transmit via laser or directed microwave for that matter.Turns out both are also wireless.Turns out they are also mucho faster than the Siemens toy and usually serve backbone communication.

Now, if Siemens would have named their thing: “fastest consumer grade wireless connection using established 5GHz freq”, it would have been more reasonsable.

Nothing is free. Using nice packing for information into a given frequency band makes this efficient bit that also means you cannot pack that many other people with the same speed into the same band (you are using basically their antennae and channel in that MIMO trick. I would really like to get a PAN (bluetooth substitute) using the technology though.

So, kudos to the engineers who made this work, not so much kudos to the guys who describe this (Siemens marketing and the geek guys in this case).– by Sigh

Sweden(10:51am EST Sat Dec 11 2004)Actually America's per-capita GDP is $11,000 more per head than in Sweden. America also has larger households than Sweden, so our per-household measure is much higher. – by Mike

Infra-red is cheaper!(5:48am EST Sun Dec 12 2004)here and now infra-red radio is much cheaper than microwave or laser (and doesn't require licensing) and better than copper or fibre – see for some info, the slideshow says it all – they have speeds of 10/100/155mbps > 2km with 1Gb/s versions on the way. Nowt more cost effective, especially if you have a big house / land area to cover.– by Jamie

Infrared LED Radio(8:36am EST Sun Dec 12 2004)The technology sold by FullreachIPC is one the worlds best kept secrets, about 3,000 sites across the world have twigged that its most secure according to military sources, 100% eyesafe and 60% of the cost alternatives – by Big Daddy

Sweden(11:27am EST Sun Dec 12 2004)I beg to differ! The average Swedish guy is much richer than the average American guy… just wake up Americans, and look further than your nose! Quality of life in Europe is uncomparably higher than in the USA! (I'm obviously speaking of the average mid-class, not of Bill Gates or the poor people in the slums, which, BTW, don't exist in Sweden)Just to put some figures on the table: USA has a GINI index of 0.45 while Sweden has a GINI index of 0.25 (data from the CIA factbook). The GINI index says how the wealth is distributed among the population. Gini index between 0.2 and 0.3 means “Usual distribution type that exists in general in society”, Gini index between 0.4 and 0.5 means “The difference is serious. “, i.e. it's by all means a third country nation from a wealth distribution point of view.Remember, these are facts taken from the CIA factbook, not random figures, and no, I'm not a communist nor some evil plotter, I only see the facts from a neutral point of view! (I'm not American NOR Swedish!)

And what is the average income over there? And what pecentage of homes have broadband?

We are the tech leader…regardless of the bandwidth. – by Bandleader

You obviously know little about what is going on in the world. And yes South Korea's internet development is far superior than that of US. Despite the lower average income compared to US percentage of household that have broaband internet access is FAR FAR higher than that of US. Number of active internet users is far far higher than US. We still use dial up for cying out loud. In South Korea dialup dissapeared years ago. So don't make comments when you don't have any real information or knowledge. – by Need more Bandwidth

Australian bandwidth conditions(10:04pm EST Sun Dec 12 2004)256/64 packages for 29.95 a month with a 200mb cap which can be gone over for a mere 15c a mb. Now thats broadband for you!!! Or you can have the shaped plan that cuts you down to 28k line speed in some cases.

Now this is progress. – by Thaxone

Income is variable.(3:13am EST Mon Dec 13 2004)Exchange rates and the cost of living.Working as a domain Admin for an NHS trust I had the good fortune to meet a Bulgarian Nurse.Since her arival to England she said that although she could now afford western goodsher “poorer” wages in eastern europ allowed her to rent a big flat and to go out three to four times a week. In england she found her self in a small Studio flat, unable to go out ever and struggling to meet her bills.Its all quality of life dont think we have it better in the west. this was to the average income comment above.Int he UK now a professional working person can never dream of having their own home, large enough for a family.House prices have gone up three times over the past 5 years. What would have bought a home five years ago would now only be a third deposit.Blair needs to be hung :)High speed wireless, I had an old building to hook up, listed so cabling it would have been difficult, and walls too thick for the wireless signals. Hmmmnnn… – by english